rights movement in south african apartheid was a far cry from the imagery of obama in israel you know the medal of distinction by the israeli government a first of its kind for any american president so here to talk about the significance of this trip and the prospects for peace between the two countries i'm joined now by phyllis bennis director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies thank you so much for coming on good to be with him always good to see you so as his first trip as president to israel it's a gesture that every president kind of has to make during their tenure was this a trip of necessity for that reason or do you think that he actually had the intention or cares about brokering peace between the two countries i don't think the question is whether he cares about it as a person probably yes but that's not really the point i think that there was a very clear message here that there is not going to be any new u.s. initiative in getting the so-called peace process back on track we've had twenty one years of failed quote peace process twenty